unimogjohn

It is Monday, May 10th. Wow, another nice day to work on the farm. But I did get to squeeze in an hour on the Avanti. I noticed that the distributor was leaking a little oil from where it meets the block. I could not get a wrench on the distributor bolt a few days ago so I knew that it was probably loose. So I looked through a bunch of old tools and found a long, box 1/2 wrench. I heated the shaft with a propane torch and was able to easily bend it to the correct shape for getting at the bolt. Worked great and was able to get it to really seat good. This might have been the problem with the timing dancing around a bit. I plan to take her out tomorrow for a drive so will see if this helped anything. Here is a pic of the wrench. Decided that I would now tackle the replacement of the rear, round cross member at the very back of the Avanti, under the trunk/spare tire. So tomorrow plan to order the cross member and a couple of exhaust hangers from Don Simmons of Ontario, Canada. Remember I bought the SS pipes from the mufflers from him. They were a great fit. The existing cross member is about half eaten away, but still strong enough to support the back of the trunk.

Scott, good job in getting things apart. The bagging and tagging will pay off for sure down the road. I am surprised that you are not finding much rust. I expected to see lots of rust around the headlights and behind them. But they look great. Keep up the good work.

Tom, thanks, that is one nice Avanti. $20K for a paint job, wow! And I am thinking that $2K is expensive, and that is what I have budgeted. I am sure that it will find a good home. It is Sunday, May 9th. I had a couple of free hours today so I thought I would attempt to straighten the throttle rod. The threaded portion had a kink in it, which makes it hard to get a smooth idle adjustment. In addition, the spring in front of the engine was not strong enough to bring the throttle back to the idle stop, almost, but just a mm short. This made the idle high at times as the throttle did not always return to the stop. First, I managed to straighten the throttle rod, and then I cut off about six rounds off the spring to make it a bit tighter. Now it adjusts nice and smooth. I also reset the throttle kicker, idle, and throttle/transmission stop. Here is a pic of the final result. For some reason, the engine does not want to immediately re-fire if the engine is warm, like sitting an hour or so. I think that it is a choke issue, so move the auto choke another notch richer to see if that makes a difference. It is now set at the two clicks rich off of center mark. The engine started right up, we will see if it does the same tomorrow. I also got a couple of drips out of the thermostat housing. I tightened up both bolts. If this does not stop the little drips then I will pull it and put in a double thick gasket and more sealer. The car ran nice and cool yesterday.

Yes, it is a 1954 Kaiser Darrin. Here is a good write-up about the car. 1954 Kaiser Darrin Images, Information and History | Conceptcarz.com

It is Saturday, May 8th, a nice day for another car show. Alice went off to build a house with Habitat for Humanity Women's Build, so I cleaned off the Avanti and headed to the AACA show. Lots and lots of cars. A much different crowd than last week. Lots of unrestored and restored cars, and not a hot rod or tricked out car in sight. The Avanti ran great, but it does have a stumble at odd times, usually around 2000 rpm or so. It feels like misfire or something electrical, and only happens for a moment. I have platinum plugs in the engine, going to go back to the standard plugs and see if that makes a difference, if no difference, I will reinstall the old coil. So it will be a test and see kinda of procedure as a start. Here are some pics of the car show. The Avanti was visited by lots of folks. Three people dropped by and said that they had an Avanti or two in the garage needing help or not running. I encouraged them to get the cars back on the road. Greg was also there too; he brought his International Harvester speedwagon, and that picture is here too. It had a place of honor in the center of the field.

Jim, you might want to contact LeBaron Bonney Company - Antique Auto Upholstery They may have pics, etc of what you are looking for, as well as material, and complete kits.

It is Thursday, May 6th. Not much yesterday, just more cleaning and washing the pollen off, and a short drive too. May take her to another car show on Saturday, we will see, getting behind on my farm duties. This is a AACA chapter show that has been running many years. You do get a different set of cars at this meet, rather than the real modern cars. But thankfully Greg still is busy on his maroon Avanti. Here is his report and a pic. "Nothing substantial done tonight. I did crawl under the car and remove that crossmember that supports the engine/transmission. It looks like it has hit every rock between here and South Bend. Doing some straightening. It's shape and construction don't make it very friendly for repair. So I'll do what I can and keep reminding myself "This is just a driver"."

Well, it looks like Greg made significant progress on his engine stand last night. The engine sure looks looks good sitting in her temporary home. Here is his report and pics. "The cradle is together, the engine removed from the build-up stand and is now resting safely on the pallet jack for transportation. Flywheel is installed, and its hardware needs to be torqued."

Scott, I just love stuff that is brought back from the dead. So pls. do keep us updated on your progress. You will find that lots of folks will be interested as you go along the process. Keep up the great work, and look forward to many more posts and pictures. When I get the Avanti done, also in this section, I plan on getting to our 1979 Chev Sportsvan. The rust gremlins are really doing a number on her.

It is Tuesday, early PM, May 4th. Hay fever, ughhhhhhhhhhh! It finally got me. I cannot stay out for very long, so retreating to the house with all the air filters running (four) so I can breath. I will be miserable outside now for two to three weeks. Inside I can survive. But I did get out and check out the Avanti. Drove it around the farm, brakes work fine; and then put it up on ramps and did a visual check. Everything looks fine, no grease or brake fluid dripping out the drums. Dodged a bullet. I did check the rear end grease, and topped it off, it was just a little low. And, the rear end/main shaft seal is not leaking, it had about a half inch of dried grease around the yoke when we got the car. I was afraid that it would leak like a water hose, but everything is nice and dry. I then tightened up the emergency brake adjustment cable for the last time. Everything looks good to go. I also checked the oil, power steering, and brake fluid after our 100 mile trip. Everything was fine, but I did lose a bit of power steering fluid. I know I have a leak at a hose fitting, will have to try to track that down. Right now it is not a big problem, we only dropped maybe a quarter of an inch out of the system. And Greg made it home on Sunday PM. Here is his Monday PM report and a couple of pics. "Four seats have been delivered to Phantom Auto Works in hopes that they can furnish two good ones. Avanti seats are lightly constructed on fiberglass shells. Old age and abuse take their toll on the shells and turn the foam rubber into sawdust. We'll see how they do. After driving through some of the torrential downpours you heard about, home again. Tonight's chore was to get materials and begin the construction of a quick and dirty cradle for transporting the engine. Assembled on my old '70's three wheeled engine stand, I could picture it going end over end. Eyeballing and cutting began tonight. Hung together with a minimum of drywall screws, tomorrow's trip back to Home Depot should yield enough hardware to make it sturdy enough. Tonight's pics of: Last weeks removal of seat tracks from the seats. The tracks will require major restoration efforts. Tonight's work on the engine cradle."

temperature update, it is 4 PM. Took the Avanti out for a test drive. Came up to temp. of around 170, put it in D, and off we go. The temp. stayed at between 190 and 195 degrees and went no higher on a fifteen mile jaunt. Usually, it was between 210 and 220. Yesterday, it did get as high as 230 degrees. So I am happy, seems to be much cooler running, and no leaks noticed at the flange. But of course, I had a minor mishap. The Eastern Box Turtles are running across the road. Yesterday, we stopped and picked one up; this morning I did the same thing coming home. Well, on my jaunt there was this little turtle, stopped and moved him to a safe spot. Of course I was on a slight hill, so I put on my emergency brake. Got back in, forgot about the emergency brake and drove about six miles with it on. I could smell something, but thought it was the antifreeze burning off the engine. NOT! My back wheels were really smoking when I got home, so got the hose and cooled everything down. Lots of steam, looked like a old steam train leaving the station. Well, I will let everything cool down and take it out tomorrow and check how she does. I know the rear brakes are really broken in now. The fluid level in the master is fine so at least I did not melt a wheel cylinder. Oh well. It is always something, but this time it is of my making.

It is Monday, May 3rd, early PM. Ran to the local auto parts place this morning and picked up a thermostat, radiator cap, and gasket. Total cost was about $11. They did not have a 170 degree thermostat so opted for 160 versus 180. They did have the correct 13 psi cap. Rained hard last night and this morning. Now I cannot believe how humid it is; it is like August. What funny weather. I had to turn the AC on in the house to get it comfortable. Now the humidity in the house is 37% and outside it is 87%. It just make the sweat come out of you. Not too hard to get the old thermostat out; four bolts, an alternator bracket, and the expansion tank is out. Wow, it must have been leaking at some point as everything is covered in orange RTV. Must has worked as it was not leaking. The old radiator cap is incorrect too; it is rated at 6 psi not 13. The thermostat is 180 degrees, not 170. I cleaned up the housing flanges with the Dremel tool with a little wire brush. Both ends are now nice and bright and free of all that orange RTV. I coated both flanges with Permatex number 2 sealant, inserted the thermostat and its gasket, and put everything back together. I am going to just let it sit without coolant for a couple of hours to let the sealant cure a bit. Hopefully, it will not leak. Here are a couple of pics. Will give an update later on in the day.

Mike, both my 23 and 28 engage quickly. There is no riding or slipping the clutch as some people do today. Also since you have just bought your car make sure that you check and use the correct oils in your car. You have to use 600 weight oil in the transmission or it will be harder to shift with more grinding. Ford Model As use this same weight oil so if you find a supplier of early Ford stuff, they should have it. Good luck with your car. They are fine automobiles, and with a little care they will run forever.

It is Sunday PM, May 2nd. What a nice day for a car show. Early this morning we headed west to the first car show of the season. Fifty miles each way and the Avanti did not miss a beat. Even got it on the freeway for a few miles and coming home we hit 70 mph real easy. Drove nice and straight, and was not noisy at all. Arrived at the show at 9AM and stayed until 3PM. Got really hot at the end of the day, and we were ready to head home. Lots and lots of really nice cars, most were tricked out to the nines. I would guess that there were easily 400 or so cars. None were antiques and all were modern cars of which many were highly modified or ticked out. None-the-less, there were some really nice cars. We even saw two other Studebakers. An un-restored 1952 Champion, and a 1963 Grand Turismo Hawk in original condition except for a repaint. Finally, another Avanti owner identified himself, and he had brought his 1970 Avanti II. This car was totally restored (frame off) in 2007. It was clearly a number 1 car. Beautiful. Here are some pics of what we saw. We got a lot of lookers at the Avanti, and all were very positive. We had five to ten people around the car most of the time. We spent plenty of time talking to folks. What great fun. The Avanti ran a bit hot. I think I will get a new thermostat and put it in. I did not do that, and in hindsight I should have. I cannot hear any boiling noise from the radiator or excess fluid, maybe the gauge reads high.

I have gotten several emails over the past couple of days wanting an accounting recap. So here it is. $8500 cost of car, $7265 parts and repairs, total cost: $15,765. Also Greg sent me a note that he out of town for the next few days. Delivering his seats to Phantom for recovering.

It is Friday, April 30th. Thanks Frank. Appreciate that you are still enjoying the journey. Managed to put in three hours this morning. Wanted to accomplish two things today, managed three. First, I wanted to replace the old license plate light. The old one had lost its cover and was just a bare bulb. The old fixture came out easily and found the connection in the trunk. Even found the jack handle! I wondered where that was stored; does not look like it has ever been out of its pocket. The new light did not want to go in by hand so found a socket that fit its cover lip. Used a bit of force to get it to pop in. Done and it works, what a bonus. Second, wanted to check out why the light in the trunk did not work. Easy fix, a dirty contact. Yahoo! I was so far ahead for today decided to replace the light in the console panel that lights up the heater/air controls. I figured that there had to be two bulbs in there. I hate to say this, it took over two hours to accomplish changing the bulb. Those little levers were corroded on tight. Used lots of Kroil and pried them up with screw drivers on each side. One would not give up, so that one took almost an hour to finally get it to give up. Yup, it was a burned out light bulb, replaced it and both are now lit. Cleaned up all the panels, lubed the controls and rods, and put everything back together. Made sure I put some anti-seize on the little knob connections in case they have to come out again. So that is it for today on the repair side. Going to wash it tonight when I get some shade. Maybe do some more body cleaning and waxing.

Mike, what is the condition of the engine? Rebuilt? Cleaned? If you do not know the condition of the engine I would drop the pan and clean out all the gunk. It is very important to start with a clean pan. You will be amazed at the amount of gunk. It is not tough to do, just a lot of bolts. Be careful taking it off so you can save the old gasket. If not, just make your own out of cork. Check the oil pump pickup screen to make sure that it is clean and clear. I use WD40 to spray it down and make sure that the screen is clean. If it has not been rebuilt I would use 30 weight non-detergent. If it has been rebuilt, and has a modern filter retrofitted, I would use 15-30 wight detergent. If you have a rebuild, but no filter, I would use detergent oil, but plan to change it often, like every 500 miles at most. Always change your oil when the engine is hot if you can to keep most of the gunk in suspension.

It is Thursday, April 29th. A good day! Put in four short hours today. First thing I did was to replace the flasher unit. It only cost about $3 so decided just to put it in, and see if was any difference than the original 47 year old unit. Was I surprised! The lights are much brighter, and they stay on a bit longer. A definite improvement so the old unit is now in the spares bin. Next up, the wiring harness. I lengthen one wire and shortened another to make the harness fit back in the brackets. Then re-taped everything. It now looks back to factory; and all the electrics work. Next it was time to put the emblem on the hood. The little PAL nuts came off easily. It sure was dirty under the chrome bracket. Cleaned everything up and put on a coat of wax. Then put a couple of dabs of waterproof glue on the two tabs that hold the emblem to the bracket. Put it all back together, and it sure looks good. BUT for some reason the black in the emblem turns to a shade of gray in the sun and heat of the day. Odd, will have to watch it. Then put on the new brake pedal rubber. Had to pry off the old one, it was as hard as a rock. Oh, and then put on the gaskets around the parking lights. Hopefully, they will stay dry inside now. Looks like I am done for today. Wait, I see the grill in the corner of the garage. Well, it does not do any good just sitting, so either put it on or sell it. Well, guess I will put it on. Drilled holes for the top attachment loops,and had some special metal fasteners that go over the fiberglass flange to affix the three screws. The bottom cannot be fastened easily as the lower valance is about two inches lower than the grill. I can say that the quality of the repaired front clip is not the best. Well the grill is on and looks good. Actually, the Avanti now looks like the car I remember when I was a senior in high school, 1964. Done for the day, have chores to do in the PM.

What a great looking car. Looking forward to seeing it in KY up close and personal.

It is Wednesday, April 28th. No work on the Avanti today, just got too busy on other stuff, but thankfully Greg continued to work on his Maroon Avanti. But I did get in the parts from Studebaker International this afternoon, and will put on the hood emblem, license plate lamp, and gaskets for the parking light lenses. Pictures of those tomorrow. But, here is Greg's report and pics too! "In my travels around the shop today, I stumbled across the stainless door post mouldings. The ones I misplaced a few weeks ago and have been looking for ever since. Before they escaped again, I took them immediately to the buffing wheel to remove some scratches and carried them straight to the car. Here they will wait for me to screw them down. After more upholstery panels arrive. That done, I've returned to the engine. Borrowed a 1 1/2" socket to secure the crankshaft center bolt and just now I've again gone over the valve adjustments."

In the states you can get all you need from Rhode Island Wiring. Here is their link. Rhode Island Wiring Service Inc.

Greg has been busy on Tuesday too. Here is his report for today's work. "While I can still find the gaskets that came in, I took the time to prepare and install both taillight assemblies. I'm getting better at losing things. Still need work on finding things. Pretty chilly here tonight, so I didn't spend much time in the annex. Must be something here in the warmth to do." PS: the annex that Greg talks about is actually an old barn/airplane hanger. It is full of wings, propellers, etc from old 1920 and 1930 airplanes. It is neat just to look inside. The Avanti is locked in the annex.

It is Tuesday, April 27th. Talk about being in a bowl of spaghetti; I had wires every where. Today is the day to take apart the wiring harness to see what is going on with the horn and left turn signal. Took off all the tape and found many wires burned or melted, and this was on the replacement splice wires. Sure glad I stripped the tape from everything. Sure enough they had mis-connected the horn wire and the turn signal wire. And when they could not get them to work, then they put the wrong wires on the horn relay in an attempt to get it to work. Of course it did not, overheated the horn circuit and melted a bunch of wires. Instead of trying to fix it they just disconnected the horn relay and cut the wire to the turn signal. I replaced all the burned wiring with new, and soldered each connection and enclosed everything then with heat shrink tubing. I checked every wire in the bundle. Then I put everything back and re-connected everything. We now have a turn signal that works, and a horn honking when you press the steering wheel horn levers. Yahoo! But after 6 hours I have given up for the day. I have one wire in the harness that is too short and one too long. Will fix those tomorrow. Also have to put on the flat connectors for the lights and turn signal/parking light. I have to remove the battery to do that so will leave it for now and put it on the to do list. I am very happy now that all the electrics work as they should. I even replaced one burned out light bulb in the overhead console. So everything is working. Here are a few pics of today's work. You can make out some of the burned wiring. And I have included a pic of the wires that were replaced. Over the next few days I am going to concentrated on really cleaning the body and the bumpers. There is a local car show on Sunday, and we want to take the Avanti. The interior looks great, it is just the body that really needs a good polish.

Greg continues progress on his Maroon Avanti. He told me he is getting everything ready to install the engine/transmission. He said that the transmission was rebuilt many years ago and put into storage. He is waiting on the clutch/pressure plate, which should arrive something this week. He also told me that he originally bought this car in the very early 1970s as a repo from the local bank. He had known of the car so snapped it up. Of course, it had been in a few accidents as the previous owner was known to race it on the streets against all comers. Ahhhhh, the 60s. Here is Greg's report for Monday. "Legend has it that when the first owner didn't have the car parked outside the Knotty Pine Tavern, he was racing it out on the new dual highway (Front Royal Road in VA). Legend also has it that he wrecked it before it was repossessed. Looks like at least in the left front fender. I notice that the parking lite housing was installed upside down and now this. The left radiator support to frame bracket had been broken and wasn't repaired. So far tonight I've removed it, given it a quick blasting, reconstructed it and after some dinner, I'll reclean it and get it primed and painted."

It is Monday, April 26th. We have blinkers!!!!!!!!!!! Both sides work, errr, well, sort of. I was able to find the left blinker wire as it comes out of the firewall, it was white with a brown tracer. Then it went into a white wire with a splice. I looked at the end of the taped wire bundle and all the white wires are going to various grounds. So then I decided to go to the parking light itself. Ok, the ground wire hooked to the frame, sort of, not the best job, will have to fix that; then one wire to the light itself, wait, suppose to have two. The other one is there, but only an inch stub; nothing is connected to it. No wonder I did not have a blinker. So I used a pair of jumper lines from the wire bundle directly to the wire stub, and the light immediately started blinking. Success, finally. A big thunder storm is approaching to have to quit and move the car back into the garage. Later I am going to un-tape the wire bundle and see where the wire goes. The bundle is about three feet in length. Worse case I will run a new wire from the firewall to the light. Stay tuned, more later.